painting & New Year's Eve fireworks

Friday night the first thing the girls wanted to do was build a blanket fort since they couldn't have one while the tree was up.  They sketched dresses while watching Project Runway Jr. in it and were happy this morning when Lucy came in and rested with them for awhile before they got up.  

Painting was their first activity today, Harper did a flower scene and Ava painted a soil profile.

We also baked two cakes, played Monopoly, UNO and they played outside with chalk and bubbles.

They asked Papa if they could get some fireworks to shoot off for New Year's, he said he was broke, trying to distract them, but when they gave him all their money-$8, he gave in.  It was starting to snow a little so we didn't stay out very long.

 

Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

Another fun Christmas Eve at the Uhlenkott's, with great food, Robin's yearly trivia game and the crazy adult gift exchange.  We got so many laughs from all the stealing and  James at the end of it.   

Charb, Kelly and the girls posing for the annual family picture.

The Gourde/Utecht clan.

So cute, the girls anxiously watching and waiting for Santa. 

Harper told me later that she thought Santa parked his sleigh behind the garage since he came from that direction.

 Harper got the Branch troll and Ava the Poppy troll from Santa.

Opening presents, Rielee was happy to get a stamping set.

The Gourde girls.

Christmas morning-after our traditional biscuit and gravy breakfast, it was time for the traditional scratching of losing lotto tickets...

Rielee practicing flying her drone, I seriously doubted it would last a day since she crashed so many times. 

We had dinner later at Des and Gabe's and played cards. Rielee won 31 and Poop On Your Neighbor, I beat her at a game of Uno. It was a wonderful Christmas.

Christmas Eve part 1

Charb, Kelly and the girls came up early Christmas Eve so we could exchange gifts. 

The girls wore these matching dresses because they loved the necklaces. 

Going through their stocking stuffers. 

Papa passed out the presents.

They really liked this puzzle made of family pictures.

Rescuing Lucy

When Lucy didn't come inside one night last week, we feared the worst-that she had been taken by a coyote.  Instead, Papa found her the next morning- way up high in a fir tree.  We tried everything we could think of to reach her, to no avail.  Gabe's 20' extension ladder was too short and we couldn't find a longer one.  The fire department didn't even have one, and they don't deal in treed kitties.

 So Papa got the tractor and put the ladder in the bucket, then asked if I would run the controls to lift him up high enough to reach her.  I refused because it seemed like a crazy idea and way too dangerous and I had never used the tractor.  So he suggested Alan might help, and of course he did, so I sat in the bucket to hold the ladder while Papa climbed up to get her.  Thankfully, Lucy is used to riding on Rielee's shoulders and jumped onto Papa's and he was able to safely climb down with her. 

She was one hungry, tired kitty.  Ava made her a special bed and she was happy to nap on her blanket the rest of the day.

Maple tree cutting

 Parker came to get us today to watch him cut down a large maple up on the front lot.

It was his biggest tree yet. He said he wants to get some firewood in to dry for the woodstove he and Dad put in their shop.  Plus he doesn't like all the leaves it dropped either.  We were surprised that it didn't have any rot in it at all.

Gingerbread houses

 

After helping with the gingerbread houses in Emmy's room today, I brought some home to do with the girls.  At first they thought I was crazy when I said they were going to attach the graham crackers with frosting to the milk carton, but once they figured it out, they thought it was cool.

They got creative in their decorating, taste testing a lot of the candy and frosting, too.

They were happy with their finished houses.  Once they were done, we went to the library and bakery, they were supposed to go while I was gone, but wanted to wait so I could go, too.  Rielee had homework to do after school so she couldn't come along, but we brought her a maple bar.

With all that sugar coursing through their veins, our UNO game later was out of control.  They kept busting up laughing so much we could barely keep the game going! 

Snow, again!

A surprise snow day, and it was the best one yet.  We woke up to find a couple more inches of snow. Nice, heavy, wet snow-perfect for a snowball fight.  Rielee came over for breakfast, then we all headed out and got to work on forts.

This was the one Ava and I made, complete with a snowman.

Rielee, Papa and Harper behind theirs (and water on my lens), with Lucy watching.  We found out right away that we made the forts too far apart.  Could barely throw that far.

Ava had to run up to attack them, and vice versa! 

For round 2, Rielee and Harper made their fort bigger and higher, using the sled to haul snow from all over to add to it. 

Higher for Harper to hide behind, she got Papa good-with a huge snowball right on the hood of his coat, so snow went down his neck.  She jumped for joy, screamed and laughed on that one!  The girls all got a good laugh out of watching Grandma take a nose dive into the snow, too. 

Finished off that session with some snow angels. 

The Gourde girls had a ton of fun in the snow, with breaks for hot chocolate, movies and playing Barbies. 

A perfect day.

 

 

Our helper

Rielee is always willing to help out when asked.  Friday night Papa and I were doing some prep work for Emmy's classroom gingerbread house building tomorrow, so we called and asked if she could come over.  Papa cut out the cardboard bases and Rielee covered them with foil, then she helped me cut the graham crackers in halves and triangles.  Her help made it go much faster and we were done in no time. 

Rielee and Lucy in the snow

We had a visit from Rielee today-she wanted me to take her picture with Lucy in the snow.  We tried to take one last week when it snowed, but Lucy took off running and when Rielee dove to grab her, she hit her knee on a rock.  Lucy is a little hyper in the snow.

Tree and snow

 What a busy and fun weekend.  The girls came up Saturday morning and went right to work decorating the tree, in spurts, 

they'd put up a few ornaments and then run outside to play in the snow.  What snow they had at home was covered in ice, so they were really happy we had some. 

Papa said he learned a valuable lesson about snowball fights with the Gourde girls-run!

They are crazy good at throwing and they throw hard. 

He was outnumbered and getting punished on a regular basis, while Lucy watched from the arbor.  They took him out to play I don't know how many times, even after dark.  This morning after Papa got cold and went inside, they stood out on the deck, entertaining themselves by chucking snowballs up on the roof.

We made sugar cookies yesterday, too

and they started filling Christmas mugs with greens and decorations.  They finished them up today, taking them home for Mom, their teacher, the school nurse and others.

Their snowman from last night, and Harper-who needs a coat?

Rielee came over this afternoon and they played in the tiny

bit of snow and ice that was left.  Then we played a bunch of games of UNO, Ava and I won the championship of the whole world.. 

Soccer

pre-game pep talk

 The team Ava and Harper are on is called the "Earthquakes" and they rock.  We had a great time watching them and the girls were so cute, they were trying so hard.  The teams were evenly matched and the game ended in a 2-2 tie.  Charb and Kelly said they're improving every game.  The girls need some name tags to wear though so their coach can tell them apart.

 

Rielee puzzles

Rielee came over Sunday to see how the Christmas puzzle turned out.  Since the girls had put the last piece back in again, Rielee removed it then finished it again for herself.  Then she got out 2 more puzzles and we put them together.  We had to take her to the bakery, too, since she missed the trip Saturday with Ava and Harper. 

Sewing lesson, puzzle

I gave the girls a brief sewing lesson today.  They had fun, especially sewing really fast. 

They played at Rielee's in the morning, then she came over and we started on a Christmas puzzle.  It took us all afternoon.  Rielee had to leave for a gingerbread house-making party so she wasn't there when we finished it.  She asked that we leave the puzzle out and let her put the last piece in, again.